Ep. 106 Empowering Carlsbad's Female Innovators with Tamina Madsen

Carlsbad, people, purpose, and impact, an essential podcast for those who live, work, visit, and play in Carlsbad.

Good morning, and welcome, everyone. My name is Brett Schonzenbach. I'm the president and CEO of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, and I'm your host today. And I'm very excited to have with me Tamina Madsen. Tamina is the community director at Hera Hub Carlsbad.

Good morning, Tamina.

Good morning. Thank you so much for having me on the show.

Absolutely. It was a it's great to have you. I know you had a long, long commute from your office to mine. What about 20 steps maybe?

50 steps.

Just a few. We love being the neighbors of the the Chamber of Commerce.

And we love having you as our neighbors. And we'll talk about that a little bit. But I was I was looking at your, your background, and, it's quite interesting. I didn't know one could get a degree in rhetoric.

Yes. That's such a Berkeley major.

Yeah. I was like, okay. What exactly is rhetoric?

It's the study of argumentative argumentative writing.

Okay.

Yeah. I always wanted to go to law school, so it was the perfect major for that.

Set you up because I saw you went to UCLA for law school Mhmm. And became a lawyer, and you practiced for a while. Tell us what you did in that arena.

Yeah. I did class action litigation on the plaintiff's side. So, you know, going after, you know, these big corporations like AT and T and Toyota

Yeah.

On these major major lawsuits about, you know, consumer breach of contract, breach of warranty, consumer protection laws, that type of thing.

Interesting.

Yeah. It was interesting. And it

looks like you did that for about 4 years?

Yes. Yes.

And then

you did your research.

I love it.

And then you ventured out into entrepreneurism and and launched your own apparel line.

Yeah. More or less. I launched an ecommerce site

Okay.

Where I sold a fashionable, officially licensed game day apparel for women. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, football, college football is so big, especially in other parts of the country. Yes.

Not as much on the West Coast. But, yeah, it was it was fun. I learned a lot, learned a lot about being an entrepreneur and how it is, it can be incredibly isolating and challenging. Also, you know, if really freeing too.

Yeah. Yeah. No. For sure. Yeah.

I saw on some of the some of the apparel, there was a kinda heavy emphasis on the SEC in this Yes. That part of the country.

Yeah. I started you know, because I went to all West Coast school. Schools.

I started out with UCLA and Cal and quickly realized that the the money is not

Not here.

Not on the pack. I think it was

the pack 12 at the time. Yeah.

That's hilarious. And so now you have been at Hera Hub for 5 years. Is that right?

It's been almost 5 years.

That's awesome. So let's talk a little bit about that. It looks like, now I know Lissane couldn't join us today.

Yes. Lissane.

I'm so sorry. Lissane.

She gets that all the time.

Yeah. My bad. Well, shoot. If I already messed up her first name, I mean, you you just tell us her last name.

Go ahead. Bosquia. Okay. Yes.

I would never have said it that way. Bosquia. So she it looks like she started Hera Hub, though, in 2008?

No. So Felina Hanson is the founder of Hera Hub.

Okay.

She started it. It's been over 12 years now. Okay. So she was the founder, and she opened I think the first location was in the Sorrento Valley area.

Okay.

And then Carlsbad was the 2nd location, which opened in 2014. Okay. And no. I think I got that wrong. It's been we already had our 10 year anniversary.

Okay. So, yeah, a little over 10 years.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And Lisan purchased it. Lisan was a member.

Yeah. Yeah. She was a member at Harrahup Surinha Valley and, Felina wanted to, offload that location because she was opening another one in Mission Valley. And so she sold that location to Lisan.

Very nice. So why don't we start let's assume there could be some folks listening to this podcast who really don't know the first thing about Hera Hub. So why don't we start there and talk about what is Hera Hub?

Yeah. So Hera Hub is the first international female focused co working space and business accelerator. It's a bit of a mouthful. Yeah. Yeah.

But, you know, back when Felina launched it, co working wasn't really a thing Sure. In the United States. And now, you know, with WeWork and everything, it's really blossomed. But Yeah. We're like, we consider ourselves the OG Nice.

Of of co working spaces and especially the female focus ones.

Very nice.

Yeah.

And so I also saw, so you have that distinction as female only, which is

Female focused. Okay. Female focus. Sorry. We we do welcome, all genders into our community.

Yeah.

Yeah. But we our focus is women.

Yeah. Mhmm. I I I think, the lawyer in you is, like, protecting you. Like, okay. It's not gonna be exclusive, but I don't think there's anybody there.

We love all the perspectives. Yes.

You know?

There we go. Yeah. Love it. So you have that focus. But I also saw that you guys are on your website, it talks about being a public benefit corporation.

Why why did you go that route, and what does that even mean? Some people won't know what that means. And

Yeah. Well, we focus on the, like, the the foundation of why the company was founded and to begin with, which is to help women build their businesses. And so, in everything we do, we're always giving back. For example, we have an ambassador program, which basically offers women who are in transition, you know, who have the goals of building their business or who are trying to figure things out in their lives the opportunity to take advantage of all of our programming. We have a ton of events and resources and and workshops.

And so all of these ambassadors, in exchange for, you know, volunteering, they get to they get a a membership at Airhub.

Yeah. Very nice.

So, yeah, we're very community focused and community first.

And we're gonna unwrap that a

little bit more.

And before we jump into that, though, I just wanted to get a few of the basics. So somebody as a co working space, somebody could come and rent. Like, how does it work? They could rent, a dedicated space, a shared space, an hourly? Like, what are some of those things that they you have as options?

Yeah. We have all of those options.

Okay.

So the core of our business is a monthly membership. We call our the people who work in our space members and they pay a monthly plan. And the plans, you know, they're there's all different. They range depending on what you want out of it. But the core of it is they have a set number of hours per month where they can come work in our open co working space.

Any desk is available. And then they usually have some credits that are built in to rent private meeting rooms on an hourly basis. Some of the plans have mail handling, which is huge. Right? If you're starting your own business, you don't want to list your home address on all of your business communications or on your website.

So that's a big perk too. And then, of course, in all of the membership levels, we have programming and community and that's always included no matter what.

Sure.

So those are the monthly memberships.

Yeah.

So we also have private offices that are leased out on a, annual basis. And then the general public, people who are not members, can on, can also rent our rooms and conference rooms, meeting rooms, podcast room, as well. They just pay a higher rate than the members.

Sure.

Mhmm.

Very cool. We're gonna take a brief pause. We're talking to Tamina Madsen, the community director at Harrahub Carlsbad. And when we come back, we're gonna unpack the various programs that they have. They're robust, options and, dig into this a little bit more.

So stay with us. We'll be right back. So, Tamina, before we, took a break here, we were just starting to tease a little bit the huge variety and width and breadth of programs that you guys offer at Hera Hub. So I I was on your website, and I was just blown away. There's so much.

I saw feedback Fridays, happy hours, global SubHubs, Mindful Mondays

I love how you did a research.

Biz development, power hours, book clubs. I was particularly interested in the writer's lounge. But I would love for you to share about a few of these and tell what they are and, you know, how they work.

Yeah. So it's funny how our programming has evolved, over the course of all these years and the pandemic. Right?

Sure.

The core of the programming has always been one really fun, I wanna call it a community event. It's a networking and community event, and it brings together in person all of our members at our location. So I I love planning these. We have done everything from, you know, candle making in Carlsbad Village to a personal stylist workshop at our location. And the goal is just to make it fun, bring our members together, and in doing so, they network with each other just more organically than a formal networking event.

Sure.

Yeah. So that's what we do every month. Every week, we have a business booster, which is a hands on workshop. We really want to make them interactive as opposed to just turning on your computer, you know, checking out and checking your email. So really hands on.

Any of our members can host a business booster and the goal is to share your knowledge with the community. And in doing so, again, that's networking. Right?

Yeah.

The other members know what you do. They will hire you. They will refer you. I love our sub hub program. I think it's kind of similar to the working groups that you have here in the chamber.

We have over 10 of them. They range from marketing to wellness entrepreneurs, to scaling your business, and they are affinity groups that meet virtually once a month. So quite a bit of our programming is virtual and global, meaning that members from all over the country can attend and participate, And that makes it really rich and and diverse.

So on that note, you know, you mentioned how Hera Hub was started about,

12, 13 years ago.

Years ago. And so there are there hair there are Hera Hubs all over the country now?

Yeah. We have 3 in San Diego. So San Diego is where we started. Gotcha. And what's nice is that members in all of our San Diego locations have reciprocity.

Right.

Right? Like, I can go meet a client in Mission Valley. No problem. So Mission Valley, La Jolla, Temecula, Irvine, Chicago, and DC.

K.

Yeah. And we're growing. We have some, virtual out posts as well. So we're really just trying to meet all these women entrepreneurs where they are even if they're not physically here.

Yeah. And you mentioned virtual. I know, you know, from some experience with other co working spaces that, a virtual presence for some of them is an option? Is that not like, a fully virtual membership type thing, like, a mailing address and virtual? Or how does that work?

Yes. So I know that some co working spaces have what they call, like, a virtual membership where it's basically processing your mail or answering your phone. We don't exactly do that. The point is really to join the community. So it's called a community access membership.

That means you can attend all of the events that are virtual. You can be part of the community. We have a, you know, a robust, like, member directory, resource library, all of that. So you can take advantage of all of that from no matter, you know, where you're located.

Yeah. Very nice. Yeah. And I know I teased it at the very beginning, but I do wanna highlight that you guys moved recently. And as I mentioned, we're super excited to have you here in our neck of the woods.

But talk to us about that. What you you know, you had your space down there on Avenida Encinas for a while, and now you're up here. So about what was all that about?

Yeah. So we were on Avenue Encinas, just south of Cannon for over 10 years, and our lease was up. And we did not have a choice. I loved that location so much because it had those awesome garage doors.

Yeah. And just the roll ups. Yeah.

The roll ups. They were so good. We had so many wonderful events there, but we had always wanted to move a little more east, more inland to where people actually live. Right? So not so coastal.

And, now we are, yeah, next door to the Chamber. We have a larger location with more private offices, and we have more features. We have a new coaching slash therapy room, something that we've always wanted to have because so many of our members are in different types of coaching businesses in the holistic world. And related to that is a new wellness room that has a massage table. So we can do, you know, in addition to massages, energy healing, Reiki, acupuncture.

Again, like so many of these wellness entrepreneurs, they don't have their own dedicated office. That's so costly for them. So we meet them sort of in the middle and give them the opportunity to rent on an hourly basis and build their business that way.

Yeah. That's great. Mhmm. That's really great. So, so many features.

Of course, you didn't mention the writer's lounge. I I really I wanna know I wanna know more.

Okay. So, again, this is common for, entrepreneurs. They wanna write a book. They want to write a blog. They you know, there's so many things you need to be writing all the time.

Content, social media captions. So we have 2 hours of dedicated time where you just focus on your writing. Yeah. So accountability is a big part it. Right?

That's a lot of what we do and we, we have, a member who's a writer, an author, a writing coach. We have all those types of people in the community, so they will be present during that time and, available for you to, you know, run run some drafts by them, get feedback, that type of thing.

Oh, it's super valuable. That is very valuable. And, the last specific one that I can't, like, I can't do this podcast without mentioning is you have, something on there called the Get Stuff Done day or maybe it's got a different name.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a Carlsbad, location specific event. So that is a day, a full Friday, usually at the end of the month, where you get ish done. Again, a lot of accountability goes into it, but we invite all of our members to come in.

We meet and we write down on the whiteboard, what will you accomplish today? And then, literally, you go check things off, you know, and it's just like the sense of accomplishment. The more you get done, you're, you know, in the community of other members who are also just, like, checking things off their to do list and we offer, you know, snacks and, you know Yeah. Brain food, that type of thing. And at the end, we celebrate with some wine or or, you know, a mocktail.

Nice. Love it. Love it. Love it. And, so if somebody's hearing about this for the first time and they're like, wow.

This sounds great. You know, I've been working out of my home. I could use some community. Right? And I wanna be connected to people or have outgrown a home office or who knows?

Any other things. I'm just starting something Yeah. And they wanna get to know you guys better. Would your website be the best place to start? Or

Sure. Yeah. I mean, you could go to our website. There are lots of different forms there where you could submit a request to take a tour with me. And anytime you take a tour, you're welcome to a complimentary trial co working day because a lot of people don't quite get it.

They don't understand if they'll be productive in a in a communal space, so I give them that opportunity to just try it out for the day. So our website has a ton of information. It also has our event calendar, which is a little overwhelming, but so many events. Lots of fun photos.

Your job well.

Yes. Yes. And I also love our Instagram page

Yeah.

Because I am always filming fun video at all of our events. So it'll give you an idea of what it's like to be a member there too.

Very nice. So why don't you tell everybody your URL and your Instagram handle?

Okay. Yeah. So our Instagram handle is harahub carlsbad, all one word. Our website is harahub.com /carlsbad.

Harahub.com/carlsbad. Excellent. And I know, there's more to life than all this fun stuff we've been talking about. I I I see you have 3 very energetic little boys.

Yes. I have an 11 year old, and then I have twin 9 year olds who are about to be 10. So, my 3 boys are all were all born within 18 months of each other.

That's a lot.

Yeah. It's gotten a lot easier. They're now at the point where, you know, it's more about, like, driving them around at different sports practices and events rather than, you know, helping them, you know, bathe and feed themselves.

Right. You're in the chauffeur phase.

I am in the chauffeur phase. I love it though. It's it's fun being a boy mom.

That's awesome. Did we miss anything about hair hub? I don't wanna, you know, not I wanna I don't wanna fail to mention anything.

Yeah. I would just say that if you are curious about what it would be like to not work from home all the time or if you need help in, you know, actually being profitable in your business and and, and not being a side hustle anymore and making it into a real business where you are, you know, generating profit and making money for your family, then come come say hello to me because that's really what we're focused on is is helping women make that money.

We we need more of that. Right?

Love it. Yep. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to come and share with us and tell us all about the great stuff you guys do there. We love having you as a member, and we love having you as a neighbor. So it was great to have you today, Tamina.

Thank you so much for having me. We can't wait to host another event for the Chamber.

I'm down. Let's go.

Let's do it.

Thanks for joining us today on our Carlsbad People, Purpose and Impact podcast. If you got value out of our episode today, please hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app, and please tell a friend. Can't wait to see you next time on Carlsbad People, Purpose, and Impact.